It is well known in the art that solid marking compositions can be formulated from mixtures of waxes, fatty acids, colorants, and color extenders. These solid marking compositions can be used to fabricate crayons, which can be used to draw, write, or color on porous and non-porous substrates. Crayons are most often used on various types of paper, such as notebook paper, art paper, and posterboard. Furthermore, crayons are available in a wide selection of colors, ranging from primary colors to fluorescent colors.
Attempts have been made to combine glitter with conventional crayons in order to produce a glitter crayon which yields a glitter effect on substrates during the normal use of a crayon to impart color to a substrate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,669 discloses a water-soluble crayon composition consisting of water-soluble wax such as microcrystalline wax, polymeric thickener such as polyacrylic acid, color, and glitter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,990,013 discloses a crayon composition comprising a base wax binder such as the combination of paraffin, candelilla, and carnauba waxes, an emulsifying agent such as stearic acid, and reflective flake.
The attempts to prepare a glitter crayon, however, have not as yet been successful, and the prior art does not teach a solid marking composition which can impart glitter to a surface in as easy a manner as the surface may be colored. There has been marketed a metal-swirl version of a Crayola.RTM. crayon which contains fine particles of aluminum; however, while this type of crayon yields a swirl effect and alters the typical pigment, such a crayon does not impart a glitter effect to a substrate. Thus, there remains a need for a solid marking composition to impart glitter to a substrate during normal coloring of the substrate with the solid marking composition.
It is an object of the present invention to provide such a solid marking composition which imparts glitter to a surface upon coloring the surface with the solid marking composition. It is another object of the present invention to provide a solid marking composition containing glitter that is suitable for use on porous and nonporous substrates and that can be used to substantially fix the glitter on a marked substrate indefinitely. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a solid marking composition containing glitter which may be easily removed from a nonporous marked substrate, e.g., through the use of mild soap and water. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a solid marking composition suitable for use in writing instruments such as crayons.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention, as well as additional inventive features, will become apparent from the description of the present invention provided herein.